The thrilling 11-inning clash where the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Blue Jays by one run averaged a total over 50 million viewers in the United States, Canada, and Japanese territories. Major League Baseball announced this marks the highest-rated World Series finale after the 1991 edition contest featuring the Minnesota Twins and Braves.
Television Viewership Details
The Saturday memorable contest drew 27.33M viewers on Fox channels, its Spanish-language channel and their digital services. Per ratings data, it was the second most-watched broadcast of the week.
It additionally is the top-rated Fall Classic matchup after the 2017 final game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, which drew over 29 million. This represents a sixteen percent improvement compared to the previous Game 7 between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, which attracted 23.19 million viewers.
In the Nielsen ratings, Game 6 ranked fourth, the fourth game ranked seventh, Game 5 came in 8th, and Game 3 landed in 13th position.
Global Audience Numbers
In the Canadian market, the game drew 11.6M watchers on the Sportsnet network and the French TVA Sports channel. This made it the highest-rated English broadcast in Canada after the 2010 edition Vancouver Winter Olympics.
In Japan, where the deciding contest started at 9 PM in the local time zone, it averaged 12M. This followed last Friday’s Game 6 – in which Fall Classic MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a single run in six frames – recorded 13.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated Fall Classic matchup on a sole broadcaster in Japan.
Overall Averages and Patterns
The entire seven-match World Series recorded 15.71 million audience members on Fox, a two percent increase from the previous year’s Dodgers versus Yankees matchup. This marks the first time since 2015 and 2016 that the World Series has seen viewership growth for two straight seasons.
Counting the opening game broadcast on the Univision network, the total American viewership reached 16.1M. The total World Series viewership in Japan was 9.7 million and 8.1 million in Canada.
The complete playoffs on Fox and its sister channels recorded 8.09 million viewers, an 8% increase over the previous year and Fox’s best playoff performance since 2017.
MLB announced that the Fall Classic was televised in 203 countries and territories by forty-four media partners in sixteen different languages.
